npower Future Leaders to visit the Arctic Circle

Four St Andrews University students will be taking a trip of a lifetime to the Arctic Circle after winning npower's Future Leaders competition. The intrepid group will visit the land of the Midnight Sun to dog sled over 200 km from a base camp into the wilds of Europe's most northern country.

The team of undergraduates from the University of St Andrews found out that they had won the competition at a ceremony at npower's Rainton offices in the North East attended by RWE npower Chief Commercial Officer, Paul Massara

The npower competition, which launched in June, involved teams of students from universities across the UK, who each had to run a green sustainability project around their university areas. All teams had to produce films of their campaign from start to finish and submit to npower’s judging panel, who ultimately judged the best team as winners of this prestigious prize.

The St Andrews 'Team Penguin' project provided students a sustainable alternative to short taxi rides from the centre of town to the halls of residence. They set up a free pedicab service, targeting 7,000 students during Fresher's Week, with the aim to increase awareness of growing student carbon footprints. The project was also applauded by various companies and dignitaries such as Friends of the Earth, Virgin Travel, Zac Goldsmith MP and Tony Blair’s office.

Team Leader for 'Team Penguin', Mark Preston commented: "We can’t believe we're off to the Arctic in March! It’s an absolute trip of a lifetime and one which we think will be a real challenge.

"We worked extremely hard on our campaign which has reached over 5,000 people with our sustainable message and have raised vital funds for Macmillan Cancer Support through passenger donations.

"But the hard work doesn’t stop there - we’re now looking to expand our project to use pedicab services to transport university cargo and replace university transport vans, in the hope to leaving a lasting legacy of our project."

Paul Massara commented: "I would like to congratulate Team Penguin for their commitment and enthusiasm in delivering sustainable projects which will make a real difference to their university campus.

"The npower Future Leaders Challenge has offered a platform to develop specific skills to help them in their future careers. I am positive that their projects will continue to develop and that they will have inspired others to consider how they too can make a difference.

"We developed the npower Future Leaders Challenge to find undergraduates with passion and drive, and I believe we have unearthed that passion and also found real climate change champions in this competition."

Heading off to the Arctic with Team Penguin will be five npower employees who all created individual sustainability projects, ranging from reducing paper towel usage at our Rainton and Solihull sites, to growing vegetables in the Midlands.

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About npower:
As a company, npower understands the importance that our society's future leaders will play in shaping and driving the energy debate and the need to balance cleaner more sustainable energy with keeping prices down.

The importance of living more sustainably, as the indigenous communities of the Arctic have learnt over centuries, is fundamental in helping to balance this ever changing equation.

The npower Future Leaders competition helps to inspire the next generation of future leaders to think differently and help tackle climate change by engaging people in their communities.

PR Contact:
Sunita Patel
Bridgwater Road
Worcester
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0845 070 2807
www.npower.com